A phonological analysis of documented traditional Igbo children games songs

Abstract

Igbo children engage in traditional games that often have song accompaniments. However, many of the traditional Igbo games are threatened by several factors, more particularly modernity. This threat is the basis for the documentation of the games alongside the accompanying songs. The documentation involves five-level annotation, phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic and philosophical. This paper presents an analysis of the songs at the phonological level, with focus on variation. The purpose is to provide the phonological information required to support the revitalization of traditional Igbo children game songs, and the material support for pedagogical issues pertaining to phonological variation, which characterize the Igbo language. The data are representative of the documented traditional Igbo children game songs from four primary schools in Mgbakwu community of Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State, Nigeria, Central School, Abogu Primary School, Unity Primary School, and Community Primary School (Eme, Mbagwu, Asadu & Nkamigbo, 2023). The analysis shows that there are some sounds which vary in the songs from one group of children to another as well as the standard Igbo. Evidently, this qualifies phonological findings in the Igbo language studies.